Some enumerators undertaking the 2021 Population and Housing Census have incurred the wrath of some homeowners for asking certain questions to the extent that there are instances where some enumerators have been chased away by angry dogs.
A resident at Adentan, for instance, told 3FM on the morning show, Sunrise, Monday, July 12 that some of the questions are “irrelevant”.
“Can you imagine this enumerator asking me about the number of laptops and bicycles I have? What sort of question is that? I thought that they ask about whether you have bathrooms or toilets but to ask about the number of dogs I have is a no no!”.
Another listener stated: “I have not been counted yet because I don’t like the questions they ask. They ask about the number of television and radio I have but my question is, I struggled to buy these items; the government didn’t buy them for me so why ask about what I possess?”.
On Monday, in response to these concerns, the Head of Census Methodology at the Ghana Statistical Service, Johnson Owusu Kagya, said “there are 13 different assets that we are talking about here, so we have fixed telephone, radio, cordless telephone, tractors, canoes, outboard motor, donkeys, television, refrigerator, bicycle, and laptop”.
Mr. Owusu Kagya dismissed as part of the questions the number of dogs one has as an item.
He also said the kind of questions asked is purposely to measure the living standards of Ghanaians.
“We have agreed on a set of assets to measure the non-monitoring poverty and so when we ask you about whether the household owns these kinds of assets, we then ask you about the numbers and so it is not limited to only laptops.”
The 14-day exercise was scheduled to end Sunday, July 11 but the government has extended it by one more week.
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) said it has done about 80% coverage and hopes to cover every household with the mop-up.
By Richard Bright Addo|3FM|3news.com|Ghana
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS